Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko

One year ago, on 8 March 2014, Angeles Galino Carrillo died in Madrid at the age of 98. Angeles was born in Barcelona on 17 August 1915. She was a woman of faith who opened up new paths and left her mark on the history of humankind. Angeles Galino pioneered women's presence in the Spanish university. Her vocation to education developedas she took part in the great educational movement in Spain in the early twentieth centuryinspired by Saint Pedro Poveda (1874-1936), founder of the Teresian Association and canonised by Saint John Paul II in 2003. As a lay person and as a woman, she made an immense contribution to society and to the Church of that time.

Angeles Galino was the first woman in Spain to secure a university professorship through competitive examination. In 1953 she was appointed tothe chair of History of Education and History of Hispano-American Educational Institutions in the Complutense University of Madrid. She taught there until her retirement in 1983.

Examples of educators like Angeles Galino are important references at a time of‘educational emergency’ like ours today. She strove to combine Christian humanism and educationin her research and in the classroom as she developed the educational thought and style of the priest and educator Saint Pedro Poveda.

Several generations of students were influenced by Angeles Galino’s demanding and meaningful way of teaching and carrying out research in the Complutense University of Madrid and elsewhere, as whenshe studied in Germany in the years 1942-1945. Angeles Galino contributed with reflection and concrete action in building bridges between countries and cultures. Through international organisations and programmes, she was very involved in the recognition of the dignity of every person and culture.

Her link with Latin American educationwas another mainstay of her professional life. Aware of the educational situationon that continent and sensitive to social inequalities and the problem of the lack of justice, Angeles Galino followed the line of social education for the training of popular and social leaders, always from a Christian perspective. As a visiting professor at universities in Brazil (1954), Costa Rica (1954), Chile (1964), Peru (1991), Argentina, etc., she spoke out for the recognition of indigenous cultures and the intellectual advancement of women as a basis for the education of people everywhere. She was also a delegate to UNESCO for the planning of education faculties in Brazil, and was part of the Commission for Cultural Exchange between Spain and the United States for the Ministry of Education and Science (1971-1973).

She deserves recognition for her mark on history throughher contribution to the development and dissemination of an educational theory that helps every human being to be more a person, that promotes human and social dignity andthat states that it is possible to take initiatives and offer solutions to problems of society from an educational perspective, as Saint Pedro Poveda had done in the early twentieth century. We alsoremember her essential contribution to the personalised education model around which a movement of teacher training took form.

Angeles Galino was convinced that education can transform society. She contributed to political action in Spain by participating in drafting laws for educational improvement and equal opportunities in all sectors of society. She was a member of the National Education Council (1959-1963). She took part in the preparatory work for the General Law on Education and Financing of Educational Reform in Spain (1970), at a time of efforts to improve the quality of education in hercountry. This is alsoa highly topical issue today. Between 1969 and 1971 she was Director General of Middle and Professional Education, and Director General of Education Planningfrom 1971 to1973, for the development of the supplementary provisions of the Act. Angeles Galino chaired the board of the National Centre for Education Research (CENIDE) and took part as a member of the Higher Council for Child Protection on behalf of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) from 1965 to 1974. She was also president and founder member of the 'Friendship University' Association, formed by Spanish university women between 1956 and 1973.

Her contribution to the life of the Church was no less significant. She promoted lay associations in all fields. The Pontifical Council for the Laity asked for her collaboration on numerous occasions, and Saint John Paul II appointed her to be a Consultor of this Council of the Roman Curia in 1988. Angeles Galino participated in the 1987 Synod of Bishops on the vocation and mission of the laity in the Church and in the world, to which she brought her reflection and experience of the development of laity who are aware of their specific mission “in the heart of the world”. She was a woman who hada deep experience of faith, who lived according to the “true humanism” born of the Incarnation, with a deep sense of ecclesial belonging, inspired by Saint Teresa of Avila. The Spanish Episcopal Conference distinguished Angeles Galino in 1997 with the Bravo Award for her contribution to the dialogue between faith and culture.

Between 1977 and 1988 Angeles Galino was General President of the Teresian Association, an association of lay faithful formed by men and women who seek to unite faith and science through education and culture. She stimulated the work started by Saint Pedro Poveda on the four continents where it is currently present. She loved the Church and felt very much part of it until the end of her life. She advised young people to remain faithful to prayer as our only strengthonour life journey.

Those who knew her all remember the delicacy with which she related to people and the finesse with which she explained her ideas, while maintaining clarity on the criteria whenshe delivered her lectures or made decisions. She is recognised as a teacher of humanity and witness of professionalism radiating from her academic profession. Her influence on the human development of people went beyond that of her own students, and now we can say that generations of teachers were trained in her school. She was a spiritual guide and teacher.

In 1925, Saint Pedro Poveda wrote a profile of people like Angeles Galino who lived out their Christian vocation to the full, a vocation that comes from our baptism: “The men of God and the women of God are unmistakable. They are not distinguished because they are brilliant, or because they astonish, or for their human strength, but because of the holy fruits they produce. It is what the apostles felt on the road to Emmaus when they were in the company of the Risen Christ. They did not know Christ, but they felt the effects of his presence”. These are the people who leave a deep mark on the history of humankind, people who have been capable of following the gospel of Jesus.